Riding the wave of new food fads, tracing the current of health-conscious consumers and tapping into tech-savvy foodies are on the agenda for Bakers Delight’s new co-CEOs.

After 37 years at the helm, the bakery chain’s co-founders Lesley and Roger Gillespie have passed the rolling pin to daughter Elise and her husband David Christie.

Speaking to Inside Retail, the new co-CEOs have aggressive plans to grow the business, with the Gillespie family vision for 2030 to grow store numbers to 800 in Australia, 400 in Canada and a further 150 across other markets including New Zealand.

Elise said the handover wasn’t a spur of the moment decision and that the transition in leadership had been worked towards over a period of time. The handover was hastened when a takeover enquiry was made by another company at the time of a family council meeting in November last year. The offer sparked discussions about the Gillespie’s commitment to the business and ultimately reaffirmed that they wanted to keep it in the family.

Dave and Elise will oversee operations in Australia and New Zealand while Roger and Lesley’s, son Aaron Gillespie will continue to oversee the Canadian operations as president of Cobs Bread and a member of the board.

“Canada is going extremely well, we are up to just under 100 stores and the plan is to focus most of our expansion in Canada,” said Dave. “We are at a great point right now and the brand is well-loved. Customers are responding well to our product and we’ve got critical mass of good franchises, profitability is in the right direction and in some instances outstripping Australia so we are really going to be focusing our launch in Canada, we are going to try and double the amount of stores there in the next 3-4 years.”

Elise said that store design was an important part of remaining fresh and relevant in consumer’s eyes – particularly at a time when millennials are increasingly on the hunt to eat more than buy products. “We need to look 2017 and not 1998,” she said.

“Coupled with the aesthetics, it’s also timely to look at do you have the right equipment to produce the best quality products throughout the day? It’s time to look at how technology can better facilitate our products, planning, potentially ordering online, click and collect and digital loyalty.

“As a consumer we use technology so much more than we ever have in how we purchase goods, consume media and that continues to evolve and it’s important we evolve with it.”

With retail landlords across Australia “pretty ruthless” on refurbishments in major shopping centres, Dave said the movement towards fresher foods and focus on independent or smaller focused food retailers has “played perfectly into what Baker’s Delight has been doing for the last 37 years.”

“It’s one of the main reasons we’ve continued to bake on site,” he said. “It’s obviously a great capital investment in each location and takes a lot of space that you have to pay rent on that adds to expenses but it’s one area that we don’t compromise on.

“That experience customers get of walking into a live working bakery, with products coming out of the oven is where the magic happens.”

As Australia’s largest specialist baker with about 15 per cent of market share, the company bakes and sells bread, artisan products, savoury products, sweets and pastry goods. The variety in products offered means Baker’s Delight counts artisan bakers, independents, trendy cafes plus the likes of RFG-owned Brumby’s Bakeries as rivals. The biggest challengers however, are the big two supermarkets.

“The supermarkets are improving in what they are offering and so we need to make sure we are worth that extra shop for our customers,” said Elise. “When they  are doing their weekly shop at the grocers,  it needs to be worth the extra visit.”

As consumers become increasingly health-conscious, the rise of food fads are seen by the new co-CEOs as an opportunity more than a threat. Likening the emergence of food fads to a wave, and general health and well-being as the current, Dave said having quality ingredients and products while catering to customer demand had been a successful formula for the company. “A current is something  that’s long-term and you’ve got to be able to identify what it is and make sure you position yourself to take advantage,” he said.

“Overall health is a current and something we are on board with while something like gluten free we see as a wave.”

“One of our biggest growing products over the last five years has been high fibre whiteloaf, which has overtaken traditional white bread. “If you get your communication right and inform customers about the health benefits off your products, you can grow the overall market.”

The new CEOs will also be continuing the bakery chain’s support of Breast Cancer Network Australia, by looking to top the $1.5 million raised for the organisation last year in its annual Pink Bun campaign that launched earlier this week.

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